TRAINING ON VACATION – SHOULD WE TRAIN AND HOW TO DO THIS DURING HOLIDAY?

Holiday season is coming and probably many people who train regularly ask themselves how to keep in shape and train while on vacation. Are training sessions necessary? Or maybe is it better to get some rest? Certainly we may combine pleasure and utility and do a training in one of the gyms nearby, but is it worth it? Maybe a much better solution will be a rest from a diet and training for a week or two? In the below article I will try to present rational arguments in a very simple way, which maybe will convince some readers to their point of view.

ALL-YEAR TRAINING MACROCYCLE

The whole calendar year (which is our macrocycle) is worth dividing into smaller, the so called mesocycles. Therefore, there will be several mesocycles depending on our training goal. In strength training it is usually: building muscle mass, building strength, fat loss and the period which is very often skipped, one of the most important mesocycles - training break. In bodybuilding it usually lasts from eight to even twelve full weeks. During this time, we quit strength and aerobic trainings altogether or significantly reduce their frequency and intensity in order to fully regenerate our organism and prepare our muscle and nervous system for another hard macrocycle. While planning such a macrocycle, it is worth organizing this training break during vacation, when we may rest from daily home duties, work and we don’t need to worry about restrictions related to training and diet.

HOW TO KEEP IN SHAPE?

If we quit training during vacation and we are in the period of the above mentioned break, it doesn’t mean that we should go back to the life of an average man, eat daily in fast-food restaurants and forget about any physical activity. Although this period is the time of relaxation for us, our organism will not be able to switch overnight from an active lifestyle and healthy eating that we stick to every day to completely junk food and lack of any activity. It is worth taking into consideration and from time to time go for a long walk with your family and friends as a form of physical activity instead of using public transport or choose a bike as another activity form. During such a break on vacation we probably stop counting calories of the products we eat, however it’s not an excuse for the lack of control over the amounts of food we eat. It is still worth dividing the products we eat into five or six portions during the day and not to snack between meals. It will definitely positively influence the stable level of sugar in blood, which in turn will contribute to maintaining form. Remember – it is a planned break for our body and nervous system, which is supposed to help us in the pursuit of the dreamed silhouette in subsequent macrocycles. We sometimes need to take a step back in order to take two steps forward.

HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR TRAINING AND WHICH EXERCISES TO CHOOSE WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT?

When you eventually choose any physical activity, apart from daily walks and above mentioned cycling, a great alternative will be workout even without professional equipment, which is available at the gym. Even though in the current times gyms are available at almost every turn, barbells, dumbbells and machines may be replaced with a training with your own body weight and using everything we have close at hand – various furniture, chairs, heavier bottles with water – they will be perfect. The issue here is to select appropriate exercises and take advantage of the equipment that is available. Despite the willingness to perform such a training, I would rather suggest to make it low-volume and low-intensity. Three of four sessions in a week should be sufficient. Remember that you are still on vacation and your main aim is to rest and relax – not only from work, but also from tough trainings that you perform every week.